U.S.|How One Socialist Lawmaker Is Trying to Change His State’s Pro-Business Policies

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How One Socialist Lawmaker Is Trying to Change His State’s Pro-Business Policies

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“They want someone to go and fight, even if that person is on the losing end,” said Lee Carter, a socialist who was elected to represent Manassas, Va., in the state House of Delegates.CreditCreditJared Soares for The New York Times

MANASSAS, Va. — When the state of Virginia recently struck a deal with American chip maker Micron to expand in Manassas, both Gov. Ralph Northam, a Democrat, and the local mayor, Hal Parrish, a Republican, attended a ceremony celebrating the news.

But not Lee Carter, the self-described socialist who represents this Virginia suburb in the state’s House of Delegates.

“Micron doesn’t need the money,” Mr. Carter said in an interview, of one of the largest employers in his district. “We could have used it for something else.”

The recent midterm elections showcased the growing popularity of candidates who identify as socialists. Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, who were sworn in just weeks ago, have already attracted widespread attention as members of Congress. In state legislatures across the country, about a dozen newly elected socialists are also just embarking on their terms.

But Mr. Carter, who won an unexpected victory in 2017 against a Republican who served as majority whip, has already served a year in office. And his tenure gives a glimpse of what happens when a dues-paying member of the Democratic Socialists of America is elected to office.

Virginia politics has never before seen someone quite like Mr. Carter. In a state where Democrats and Republicans alike boast of being pro-business, Mr. Carter has waged a lonely battle against companies that seek funding from the public coffers, in addition to tax breaks, in exchange for bringing more business to Virginia.

He has yet to see any of his bills passed. But he is part of a nascent movement in Virginia that is challenging the large influence that corporations typically enjoy in the state. Virginia is one of only a handful of states that allow corporations to donate unlimited amounts of money to politicians, and is the only state in the country that does not bar politicians from using those funds for personal expenses.

“What we have in Virginia is that lobbyists literally write the bills and present them,” said Mark Keam, a Democratic delegate from Fairfax County who has served for nearly a decade. Mr. Carter has challenged his colleagues to represent ordinary people, not special interests, Mr. Keam said. “The one thing that Lee Carter has helped me understand is that labels don’t matter very much. What matters is ‘What do you stand for and what are you willing to fight for?’”

The arrival last year of Mr. Carter and 14 other newly elected Democrats made it possible for Democrats to expand Medicaid. Now the party is aiming to take control of the state legislature this coming November, a goal that once seemed out of reach.

The upcoming election also sets the stage for a struggle over Virginia’s future between those who believe that prosperity lies in wooing more businesses and those like Mr. Carter, who believe it comes from making businesses share more of their wealth. While Virginia is the 12th largest economy in the country by gross domestic product, according to the Virginia Economic Development Partnership, it ranks 26th in income equality, according to the American Community Survey.

Mr. Carter has been a vocal opponent of the incentive package, worth more than half a billion dollars, used to lure one of Amazon’s new headquarters to Crystal City, Va. And he fought against a bill overhauling the state’s energy grid, arguing that it gave away too much to Dominion, a powerful for-profit utility.

In recent days, Mr. Carter filed a bill that would get rid of the union-weakening “right to work” statute that has been in place since 1947, as well as another bill that would give public employees, including teachers, the right to strike.

He is the first to admit that these bills have little chance of passing this session, since Republicans hold a slim majority in both chambers of the state legislature, and even some Democrats oppose them.

“One of the biggest things has been trying to keep in mind that by electing a socialist, my constituents have made the choice to reject the status quo,” he said. “They want someone to go and fight, even if that person is on the losing end.”

But it is not clear how many of Mr. Carter’s constituents know that he is a socialist. More than a dozen voters on the streets of Manassas expressed surprise to learn that the district is represented by a lawmaker who embraces that label.

And although Mr. Carter sees his victory as proof that Northern Virginia wants radical change, others consider it a fluke.

“Democrats could have nominated a dead cat and it probably would have won,” said Mark J. Rozell, dean of the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University, noting that 2017 was the first opportunity to rebuke President Trump.

So far, incentive packages for Micron and Amazon appear to have public support. At Olde Towne Auto Repair in Manassas, Robert Smith, a service manager, acknowledged that giving taxpayer money to wealthy companies was a “hard pill to swallow.”

But he insisted that it was worth it.

“The whole country wants Amazon,” he said. “How could that be bad for us?”

Still, Mr. Carter has attracted a nationwide following. Like Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, or “AOC” as her fans call her, he has forged a strong bond with struggling constituents by sharing his own financial troubles. A former Marine who depends on a G.I. Bill stipend to make ends meet, he admits that he pockets the $213 dollar per diem given to Virginia state lawmakers during the 46-day legislative session, staying at a friend’s house instead of a hotel. Lawmakers are paid $17,640 a year for their work.

Mr. Carter is uninterested in presenting a typical politician’s varnished image. On Twitter, he has revealed every negative bit of personal information about himself that he can think of: He has been fired from jobs. He is still struggling to get his college degree. He is in the middle of a messy divorce from his third wife.

Then there was this Twitter post, which caused the Virginia political establishment to clutch its collective pearls: “Just like everyone else under 35, I’m sure explicit images or video of me exists out there somewhere. That’s just a reality of dating in the smartphone era.”

Mr. Carter said that airing his dirty laundry has focused his upcoming re-election race on what really matters: the economy. Now he says his Republican opponent, Councilman Ian Lovejoy of Manassas, has nothing to attack him about, except for socialism, a subject Mr. Carter says he welcomes.

Mr. Lovejoy did not respond to messages seeking comment.

Terry Kilgore, a Republican who leads the Commerce and Labor Committee, says he is confident that Virginians will choose to keep their pro-business policies and reject Mr. Carter’s views in November.

“Unions, years ago, brought a lot of good things to the workplace, but now I think that society has evolved and workers are protected,” said Mr. Kilgore, who hails from Gate City, a coal-mining town near the Tennessee border that has gotten redder over the last two decades, even as Mr. Carter’s district has grown more blue.

Republicans hoping to win back Mr. Carter’s seat this fall have created pamphlets with his smiling face next to images of Lenin and Stalin. Some Democrats predict that he and other progressives will struggle to win re-election without a governor’s race and a pro-business Democrat at the top of the ticket.

But even those who disagree with Mr. Carter’s stance on Amazon and Micron say he has elevated the level of public debate.

“He will get up and say exactly what’s on his mind, and he will say it in a very firm way and so people know exactly where he stands,” said David Toscano, a Democratic delegate from Charlottesville who served as minority leader in the House from 2011 to 2018.

At an event last month at the City Tavern in Manassas, Mr. Carter told a group of teachers about his bill that would give them the right to strike.

“It’s a faraway thing,” she said later. “If he starts now, he can build that coalition.”

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A18 of the New York edition with the headline: Challenge to the Status Quo Not Seen Before in Pro-Business Virginia. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe